Some inertial measurement systems are used to determine the attitude and propagate the position of an object on the ground. This is done by utilizing inertial sensors which measure rate information of the object relative to an inertial frame of reference. An inertial frame of reference is constant with respect to inertial space. Non-inertial frames of reference, such as an earth fixed frame, rotate and possibly translate with respect to an inertial frame. An example of an inertial sensor is an accelerometer which measures the change of velocity with respect to an inertial frame. Inertial sensors can be used by an inertial measurement system to realize 3-dimensional coordinates for the position of the object. To increase the accuracy of the coordinates, only the components of the body-sensed measurements which are relative to the actual motion of the vehicle are measured, and earth rotation, vibrations, and other random errors are eliminated.
Kalman filters are used by systems such as an inertial measurement system to estimate the state of a system from measurements, such as those from inertial sensors. Inertial sensor measurements are integrated up and contain random errors that the Kalman filter estimates in order to determine the attitude of the object. The accuracy of the position determined by an inertial system is dependent on processing zero velocity updates (ZUPTS). ZUPTS are measurements made by inertial sensors while the vehicle is stopped to ensure the accuracy of the position of the vehicle. ZUPTS are accurate only when the vehicle is stopped. When the vehicle moves, processing an observation to the Kalman filter that assumes the vehicle is stopped causes an error in the inertial measurement system. Detection of motion that would enable the system to avoid erroneous ZUPTS often occurs after the motion has started.
Techniques of detecting motion generally involve the use of a threshold. Unfortunately, in order to detect the motion as soon as possible the threshold level is reduced to a degree where vibrations, and not actual movement, have caused the threshold to be exceeded. Also, these techniques detect motion after it is started and allow erroneous ZUPTS to be processed.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a method of removing possible errors caused by incorrect zero velocity updates processed by Kalman filters.